Popular passages

Page 61 - The day that France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low water mark. It seals the union of two nations who, in conjunction, can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.

Page 89 - I am compelled to declare it as my deliberate opinion, that if this bill passes, the bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved ; that the States which compose it are free from their obligations, and that, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation — amicably, if they can ; violently, if they must.

Page 71 - With the wisdom of Congress it will rest to take those ulterior measures which may be necessary for the immediate occupation and temporary government of the country; for its incorporation into our Union; for rendering the change of government a blessing to our newly adopted brethren; for securing to them the rights of conscience and of property; for confirming to the Indian inhabitants their occupancy and self-government, establishing friendly and commercial relations with them, and for ascertaining...

Page 62 - The cession of the Spanish Province of Louisiana to France, which took place in the course of the late war, will, if carried into effect, make a change in the aspect of our foreign relations which will doubtless have just weight in any deliberations of the Legislature connected with that subject.

Page 59 - Follow exactly your instructions," said he, "and the moment you have rid yourself of Toussaint, Christophe, Dessalines, and the principal brigands, and the masses of the blacks shall be disarmed, send over to the continent all the blacks and mulattoes who have played a role in the civil troubles. . . . Rid us of these gilded Africans, and we shall have nothing more to...

Page 64 - For our circumstances are so imperious as to admit of no delay as to our course; and the use of the Mississippi so indispensable, that we cannot hesitate one moment to hazard our existence for its maintenance. If we fail in this effort to put it beyond the reach of accident, we see the destinies we have to run, and prepare at once for them.

Page 73 - ... miles. Hire a laborer to shovel it into the carts, and though he load sixteen each day, he will not finish the work in two months. Stack it up dollar on dollar, and, supposing nine to make an inch, the pile will be more than three miles high. It would load twenty-five sloops ; it would pay an army of twenty-five thousand men forty shillings a week each for...